Open Wide (4 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: Open Wide
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Chapter 7
Later that afternoon, Katie sat in her room and tried really hard to do her homework. But she just couldn’t stay focused on her two-digit multiplication problems. Her mind kept switching over to Matthew Weber.
Katie felt just awful about making Matthew cry. She hadn’t meant to, of course.
Matthew was just a little kid.
A little kid who’s afraid of the dentist.
And Katie remembered exactly what that was like.
“Mom!” Katie called downstairs to her mom. “I have to go over to Emma W.’s house.”
It was really important. When she got there Katie would open her mouth really wide and show Matthew that she had no cavities. Then she would tell him that he would probably never have any, either—if he kept going to the dentist.
“You can go for a little while,” Mrs. Carew replied, shouting up to Katie from the kitchen. “Be home by supper time. I’m making your favorite: vegetarian lasagna!”
Katie ran as quickly as she could toward the Weber family’s house. She was hoping to catch Mrs. Weber before she drove Matthew to Dr. Sang’s office. Katie rehearsed what to tell Matthew. “Going to Dr. Sang’s office can be lots of fun,” she said to herself. Okay, she didn’t really believe that part. But she really wanted Matthew to believe it.
Katie rang the bell at Emma’s front door. A moment later Emma’s teenage sister, Lacey, answered it. Lacey was holding her one-year-old brother Tyler on her hip. Tyler’s twin brother, Timmy, was standing next to them, sucking his thumb.
“Hi, Lacey,” Katie said. “Are Emma and Matthew here?”
Lacey shook her head. “You just missed them. They left for the dentist’s office.”
“Emma went, too?” Katie asked her.
“Yep. Matthew insisted,” Lacey explained. “He said she had to sit in the room with him and make sure Dr. Fang didn’t stab him with a big needle.” Lacey laughed. “Dr.
Fang
. I wonder where he got that from?”
Katie blushed and kicked at the ground. She knew exactly where he heard the name.
“I’ll tell Emma you were here,” Lacey told her.
“Yeah, thanks,” Katie answered.
As Lacey shut the door, Katie sighed and started for home. Dr. Sang’s office was too far away. Her mother wouldn’t want her to go there all by herself.
The streets of Cherrydale were empty now. No kids were playing ball or riding bikes. They were all inside doing their homework.
Suddenly, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She used one hand to lift up the collar of her jacket.
But the jacket didn’t block out the breeze. It couldn’t. After all, the wind that was blowing on Katie was no ordinary wind.
This was the magic wind!
Before long, the magic wind was blowing so hard, Katie thought she might be blown all the way across town. The magic wind picked up speed, blowing harder and harder until it was a wild tornado blowing only around Katie. She shut her eyes tight and tried not to cry.
And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.
And so was Katie Kazoo.
She had turned into someone else. Switcheroo!
The question was, who?
Chapter 8
Katie’s eyes were still shut tight. Even though she had no idea who she was, she knew
where
she was.
It was because of the smell. Everywhere she sniffed, Katie could smell that bleach and mouthwash smell. There was only one place in the world that smelled like that.
She was in Dr. Sang’s office!
Slowly, Katie opened her eyes and looked around. Sure enough, there were the big dentist chair, the bright lights, the toothpaste advertisements on the wall, and the collection of green and white plaster molds of kids’ teeth.
What if the magic wind had turned her into Matthew Weber? Then she would have to go through his dentist appointment for him.
An extra dentist appointment! That would be the worst.
All of a sudden, Katie heard a boy crying out in the waiting room.
“I don’t want to see the dentist!” he shouted. It was Matthew.
Okay, the magic wind hadn’t turned her into Emma’s brother.
So who was she?
Katie looked down. She saw brown shoes and white pants. She was wearing a weird smock with teeth on it, too.
There was something a lot worse than being one of Dr. Sang’s patients—
Being Dr. Sang!
And from the look of things, that was exactly who Katie had become.
Just then, the door to the office opened. Mrs. Shine, Dr. Sang’s dental assistant, peeked into the room.
“Are you ready for your next patient?” she asked.
Katie gulped. She wasn’t ready for the next patient. Or
any
patient! “Um . . . just a minute,” she said. “I . . . um . . . I have to make a phone call.”
“Okay,” Mrs. Shine said, leaving the room. “Just buzz when you’re ready.”
As Mrs. Shine left the room, Katie sank back into her chair. Ready? How was she ever going to be ready to look into someone’s mouth?
She glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was almost five o’clock. She was never going to get home in time for dinner. On top of everything else, her mother was going to be mad at her. She had to do something.
Quickly, Katie picked up the phone and dialed her own number.
“Hello,” her mom answered the call.
“Hi, mom.” Katie gulped. She’d forgotten she was Dr. Sang now. “I, uh, I mean, hello, Mrs. Carew.”
“Who is this?” Mrs. Carew asked.
“It’s Dr. Sang,” Katie told her. “I . . . um . . . I have Katie here in the office.”
“What’s she doing there?” Mrs. Carew wondered.
“She came with Emma and her brother,” Katie answered. “And I was thinking, as long as I have her here, maybe she could have a checkup as well.”
“Well, I suppose, if she wants one . . .” Mrs. Carew said. She sounded very confused.
Her mom knew how much she hated going to the dentist. This conversation probably sounded pretty weird to her.
But not nearly as weird as the truth would sound, Katie figured.
“Great,” Katie said. “I’ll call you when we’re finished.”
As she hung up the phone, Katie breathed a big sigh of relief. She’d bought herself some time, anyway. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the desk. All of a sudden she heard a loud buzzing noise.
A moment later, Mrs. Shine entered the room with Emma at her side. Emma was dragging Matthew by the arm.
“You buzzed, and here we are,” Mrs. Shine said.
Katie frowned. She hadn’t meant to do that.
“Come on, Matthew,” Emma urged her brother. “Going to the dentist is no big deal.”
“George said Dr. Sang drilled in his mouth,” Matthew reminded her. “Like the men do to make big holes in the street.”
“It’s not that kind of drill,” Emma assured him. “It’s tiny. And they only use it if you have a cavity. You probably won’t have any.”
“Hi, Dr. Sang,” Emma greeted Katie.
“Hello, Emma. How’s the tooth feeling?” Katie asked her. She was trying to sound like a real dentist.
“Great,” Emma replied.
“And did you and Katie have fun at your Toothday party today?” Katie continued.
Emma stared at her in surprise. “How did you know about that?”
Oops. There was no way the
real
Dr. Sang could know about that. He hadn’t been in the girls’ bathroom when they were brushing their teeth.
“I . . . um . . . I’m a dentist. I get all the tooth news,” Katie replied quickly.
Emma looked at her strangely. But before she could say anything, Matthew tugged at Emma’s arm.
“Can we go now?” he asked. “I wanna go home.”
“Maybe we should do this another day,” Katie suggested eagerly. If Matthew went home, Katie wouldn’t have to stick her hands in Matthew’s mouth and touch his tongue and his teeth. Touching someone else’s teeth seemed really gross!
“Oh, no!” Emma exclaimed. “We can’t do that. It was hard enough getting Matthew here this time.”
“I don’t know,” Katie told her. “Maybe I should tell your mother to take him home. Where is she?”
“She’s parking the car,” Emma explained. “And I know she wants to get this appointment over with as quickly as possible. Matthew has been driving us all nuts!”
“I WANNA GO HOME!” Matthew shouted out, as if to prove it.
“Why don’t you climb up into this chair first?” Mrs. Shine suggested gently. She lifted Matthew up and placed him in the dental chair. Then she used her foot to move a small lever at the bottom of the chair. “See how it moves up and down?”
Matthew nodded.
“Isn’t that cool?” Emma asked him.
“Sorta,” Matthew mumbled.
“I always like that part,” Katie said. “Um. I mean, all my patients like to ride in the chair.”
Mrs. Shine stared at her strangely. Then she turned her attention back to Matthew. “Now I’m just going to place this paper bib around your neck,” she continued.
“No bib!” Matthew exclaimed, pushing her hands away. “Those are for Timmy and Tyler.”
“Oh, this isn’t a baby bib,” Mrs. Shine assured him. “It’s for big boys. We just want to keep your handsome shirt nice and dry.”
Matthew frowned, but he let her put the paper bib on him.
“Okay now, open wide. Let Dr. Sang take a peek at your teeth,” Mrs. Shine told Matthew.
Matthew clenched his teeth tight.
Katie knew just how he felt. She hated when Dr. Sang poked around in her mouth. And when she was little, she clenched her mouth shut the same way.
But she was the dentist now. And that meant she had to get Matthew to open his mouth.
Suddenly, Katie’s eyes fell on a white sock puppet. It had big button eyes, an orange button nose, bright red lips made of felt, and big white cardboard teeth.
Quickly, Katie raced over and put the puppet on her hand. “Hi there, I’m Flossie,” she made the puppet say. “What a nice smile you have, Matthew.”

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